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Bloomberg
President Donald Trump signed a one-week stopgap spending bill, ahead of a midnight deadline to avert a federal government shutdown.
Funding is now extended until the end of the day on December 18. US lawmakers
aim to complete a full-year $1.4 trillion spending bill combined with Covid-19 relief legislation by the new deadline.
The Senate approved the stopgap bill by voice vote after several senators tried to hold the process up, seeking to force votes on unrelated issues. The House passed the measure on a 343-67 vote.
The risk of a shutdown next week hasn’t been eliminated since the talks on the full-year bill are bogged down. In addition, Senator Bernie Sanders, who briefly held up the vote, said on the Senate floor that he will renew his objection next week, and won’t back down, if Congress doesn’t approve $1,200 stimulus payments for most Americans. He is joined in that effort by GOP Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri.
“Maybe we’ll have Christmas Eve together,†Sanders said. The short-term spending bill was necessary because none of the 12 annual appropriations bills for the fiscal year that began on October 1 have been enacted.